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Acta Astronautica

Volume 191, February 2022, Pages 374-393
Acta Astronautica

Research paper
Air-breathing electric propulsion: Flight envelope identification and
development of control for long-term orbital stability

Author links open overlay panelM.Tisaev^aE.Ferrato^bV.Giannetti^bC.
Paissoni^bN.Baresi^aA.Lucca Fabris^aT.Andreussi^b
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.11.011Get rights and content
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Highlights

*

    Model relates feasible operating altitude to generic thruster
    performance.

*

    Normalised formulation determines spacecraft size based on
    thruster power.

*

    Time propagation of spacecraft altitude reveals unavoidable
    orbital eccentricity.

*

    Simulation of uncontrolled thruster shows unstable,
    divergent-altitude behaviour.

*

    Frozen orbit and thruster control law establish stable, long-term
    altitude profile.

Abstract

Air-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) enables long duration
missions at very low orbital altitudes through the use of drag
compensation. A system-level spacecraft model is developed, using the
interaction between thruster, intake and solar arrays, and coupled to
a calculation of the drag. A quadratic solution is found for specific
impulse and evaluated to identify the thruster performance required
for drag-compensation at varying altitudes. An upper altitude limit
around 190 km is based on a minimum thruster propellant density,
resulting in required thruster performance values of Isp>3000s and T/
P>8mN/kW for a realistic ABEP spacecraft. The orbit of an
air-breathing spacecraft is propagated with time, which highlights
the prescribed orbit eccentricity due to non-spherical gravity and
therefore an increased variability in the atmospheric conditions. A
thruster control law is introduced which avoids a divergent altitude
behaviour by preventing thruster firings around the orbit periapsis,
as well as adding robustness against atmospheric changes due to
season and solar activity. Through the use of an initial frozen
orbit, thruster control and an augmented T/P, a stable long-term
profile is demonstrated based on the performance data of a
gridded-ion thruster tested with atmospheric propellants. An initial
mean semi-major axis altitude of 200 km relative to the equatorial
Earth radius, a spacecraft mass of 200 kg, Isp=5455s and T/P=23mN/kW,
results in an altitude range of around 10 km at altitudes of 
160-183km during a period of medium to high solar activity.

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Keywords

Air-breathing electric propulsion
ABEP
Frozen orbit
VLEO
AETHER
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(c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IAA.

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